Members of The British Home Enhancement Trade Association (BHETA) covering garden, DIY and housewares sectors enjoyed face to face time with leading garden industry retailer, Wyevale at the latest BHETA ‘Meet The Buyer’ event, this time held in conjunction with GIMA.  

Seven Wyevale buyers from horticulture, garden and home plus Head of Buying - Leisure, Stuart Heritage and Head of Buying - Gardening, Caroline Linger met with a mix of BHETA and GIMA members at the event on November 12. 

A total of 72 appointments took place and in on the day feedback from the buying team 65 of those appointments will lead to positive follow up from Wyevale. 

The event, which was held at The Holiday Inn (Brentford Lock) was targeted at potential new suppliers to Wyevale or to current suppliers of home products presenting ideas to the gardening buyer and vice versa.  Companies were pre-selected to attend by Wyevale and were allocated 20 minute appointments with the relevant buyer. 

Commenting on the event, Stuart Heritage said: “Wyevale is always keen to see new and innovative products, regardless of the size of the supplying company, and niche players were just as welcome as larger and more established companies.  

"The day exceeded our expectations in terms of opportunities that we will be following up and we have already confirmed that we will work with BHETA and GIMA on two similar events per year going forward.”

DIY and garden sector director at BHETA, Peter Stone said: “As anticipated this was a very popular event and it’s great to see all parties seeing benefits from this kind of opportunity.”   

GIMA director, Vicky Nuttall added: “This was a really productive occasion and the fact that we are going to repeat the format twice a year with Wyevale going forward is terrific news.”